OAKLAND — The brother of a 3-year-old girl who died after twice ingesting methamphetamine was also exposed to danger inside a Stockton foster home, a federal judge said while rejecting a motion to drop allegations against Alameda County.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on April 24 wrote that the allegations, if true, show county social workers “acted with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm” to the brother of Mariah Mustafa.

Gonzalez Rogers, in denying Alameda County’s request to dismiss all counts against the county, said the boy would not have faced danger if social workers had removed the siblings.

“We are still in it,” said attorney Darren Kessler, who represents the girl’s 7-year-old brother.

The judge ruled Mariah’s brother, identified in court records as “J.P,” can sue claiming his 14th Amendment right to be free of a state-created danger was violated and that the county is liable for failing to train employees properly, among other charges.

After unsuccessfully arguing in February that “J.P.” had no standing to sue, attorneys for the county claimed social workers Diane Davis Maas and Sue May were protected under an immunity clause provided to government workers.

Rebecca Widen, an attorney representing Alameda County, also said there were no facts indicating “J.P” suffered any abuse or neglect while in the foster home of Maria Moore.

“The county defendants are correct that the complaint is devoid of any allegations that plaintiff ingested methamphetamine or suffered any physical injury,” the judge wrote. “However, there can be no serious dispute that, taking the allegations as true, plaintiff was exposed to a danger he would not have faced had Maas and/or May removed him and his sister from their foster home, namely ‘exposure to methamphetamine and its toxic effects including the possibility of death.’ The county defendants’ efforts to argue otherwise are not well taken.”

Widen did not respond to an email seeking comment. Alameda County, the two social workers, foster mother Moore and placement agency Triad Family Services are all defendants in the suit filed last year.

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The tragic and horrific final two weeks of Mariah’s life were detailed in a Bay Area News Group investigative report published in February. Mariah, who was born in Berkeley and spent her early years with her grandmother in Oakland, was placed in Moore’s home along with her brother in September 2015.

Three days after she and her brother arrived, Mariah was rushed to the emergency room after hallucinating in a neighborhood park. Doctors found methamphetamine in her system and notified San Joaquin County social workers, who contacted their counterparts in Alameda County. Alameda County and its social workers were the primary department in charge of overseeing the siblings’ care.

Instead of being removed from the home, the brother and sister returned to live with Moore. About two weeks later, Mariah again said she saw spiders crawling on her skin, monkey dancing and bunnies hopping about, according to records obtained by this news agency.

Moore did not take her to the hospital, records show. Her boyfriend, Ernest Stevens III, put Mariah down for a nap and later found her unresponsive in her bed. She was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead on Oct. 16, 2015. An autopsy report found a large amount of methamphetamine in her system.

No one was charged or arrested related to her death. Stevens, who told authorities he found a bag of meth on the girl’s toy box, hanged himself in February 2016. According to his autopsy report, his father told investigators Stevens was distraught over authorities reopening Mariah’s death investigation.

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“J.P.” was removed from Moore’s home and was recently adopted by a woman, according to Kessler. The attorney has argued Alameda County social workers should have removed the kids after the first meth ingestion. He blames a culture of neglect and a failure to properly train social workers as an impetus for Mariah’s death.

David DeBolt is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group who covers Oakland. DeBolt grew up in the Bay Area and has worked for daily newspapers in Palo Alto, Fairfield and Walnut Creek. He joined the organization in 2012.